|
 |
|
Back to the Homepage |
|
|
Nonconforming.
Creative.
Strongly motivated by curiosity.
Idealistic: wants to make the world a better place and the people in
it happier.
Happily obsessed with one or more hobbies.
Aware from early childhood that he or she is different.
Intelligent.
Opinionated and outspoken, convinced that he or she is right and that the rest of the world is out of step.
Noncompetitive, not in need of reassurance or reinforcement from
society.
Unusual in his or her eating habits and living arrangements.
Not particularly interested in the opinions or company of other
people, except in order to persuade them to his or her point
of view.
Possessed of a mischievous sense of humor.
Usually the eldest or an only child.
|
The description above is from the INFJ Mailing List, a forum for Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging people, a personality type (only 1% of the population) as determined by the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Below are some more in-depth descriptions, with credit due to the authors. Find out what your personality type is!
|
| Portrait of the Counselor (INFJ)
| Taken from David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates' Please Understand
Me
| INFJs focus on possibilities, think in terms of values and come easily to decisions. The small number of this type (1 percent) is regrettable,
since INFJs have an unusually strong drive to contribute to the welfare of
others and genuinely enjoy helping their fellow men. This type has great
depth of personality; they are themselves complicated, and can understand
and deal with complex issues and people.
| It is an INFJ who is likely to have visions of human events past,
present, or future. If a person demonstrates an ability to understand
psychic phenomenon better than most others, this person is apt to be an
INFJ. Characteristically, INFJs have strong empathic abilities and can be
aware of another's emotions or intents even before that person is
conscious of these. This can take the form of feeling the distress or
illnesses of others to an extent which is difficult for other types. INFJs
can intuit good and evil in others, although they seldom can tell how they
came to know. Subsequent events tend to bear them out, however.
| INFJs are usually good students, achievers who exhibit an
unostentacious creativity. They take their work seriously and enjoy
academic activity. They can exhibit qualities of overperfectionism and put
more into a task than perhaps is justified by the nature of the task. They
generally will not be visible leaders, but will quietly exert influence
behind the scenes.
| INFJs are hard to get to know. They have an unusually rich inner life,
but they are reserved and tend not to share their reactions except with
those they trust. Because of their vulnerability through a strong facility
to introject, INFJs can be hurt rather easily by others, which, perhaps,
is at least one reason they tend to be private people. People who have
known an INFJ for years may find sides emerging which come as a surprise.
Not that INFJs are inconsistent; they are very consistent and value
integrity. But they have convoluted, complex personalities which sometimes
puzzle even them.
| INFJs like to please others and tend to contribute their own best
efforts in all situations. They prefer and enjoy agreeing with others, and
find conflict disagreeable and destructive. What is known as ESP is likely
found in an INFJ more than in any other types, although other types are
capable of such phenomena. INFJs have vivid imaginations exercised both
as memory and intuition, and this can amount to genius, resulting at
times in an INFJ's being seen as mystical. This unfettered imagination
often will enable this person to compose complex and often aesthetic
works of art such as music, mathematical systems, poems, plays and novels.
In a sense, the INFJ is the most poetic of all the types. Just as an ENTJ
cannot not lead, so must an INFJ intuit; this capability extends to
people, things, and often events, taking the form of visions, episodes
of foreknowledge, premonitions, auditory and visual images of things to
come. INFJs can have uncanny communications with certain individuals at
a distance.
| INFJs often select liberal arts as a college major and opt for
occupations which involve interacting with people, but on a one-to-one
basis. For example, the general practitioner in medicine might be an INFJ,
or the psychiatrist or psychologist. As with all NFs, the ministry holds
attraction, although the INFJ must develop an extraverted role here
which requires a great deal of energy. INFJs may be attracted to writing
as a profession, and often they use language which contains an unusual
degree of imagery. They are masters of the metaphor, and both their
verbal and written communications tend to be elegant and complex. Their
great talent for language usually is directed toward people, describing
people and writing to communicate with people in a personalized way.
INFJs who write comment often that they write with a particular person
in mind; writing to a faceless, abstract audience leaves them uninspired.
| INFJs make outstanding individual therapists who have the ability to get in touch with the archetypes of their patients in a way some other
types do not. The INFJs are also the most vulnerable of all the types to
the eruption of their own archetypal material. As therapists, INFJs may
choose counseling, clinical psychology, or psychiatry, or may choose
to teach in these fields. Writing about these professions often intrigues
an INFJ. Whatever their choice, they generally are successful in these
fields because their great personal warmth, their enthusiasm, their
insight, their depth of concentration, their originality, and their
organizational skills can all be brought into play.
| At work as well as socially, INFJs are highly sensitive in their
handling of others and tend to work well in an organizational structure.
They have a capacity for working at jobs which require solitude and
concentration, but also do well when in contact with people, providing the
human interaction is not superficial. INFJs enjoy problem-solving and can
understand and use human systems creatively and humanistically. As
employees or employers, INFJs are concerned with people's feelings and
are able to provide in themselves a barometer of the feelings of
individuals and groups within the organization. INFJs listen well and
are willing and able to consult and cooperate with others. Once a
decision is made, they work to implement it.
| INFJs are generally good at public relations and themselves have good interpersonal relations. They value staff harmony and want an organization
to run smoothly and pleasantly, themselves making every effort to
contribute to that end. They are crushed by too much criticism and can
have their feelings hurt rather easily. They respond to praise and use
approval as a means of motivating others, just as they, the INFJs, are
motivated by approval. If they are subject to a hostile, unfriendly
working condition or to constant criticism, they tend to lose confidence,
become unhappy and immobilized, and finally become physically ill.
| As mates, INFJs are usually devoted to their spouses, but may not always be open to physical approaches. They tend to be physically demonstrative
at times, but wish to choose when, which is when they are in the mood.
This may be quite confusing to an extraverted mate. Often an INFJ's
expressions of affection will be subtle, taking a humorous, unexpected
turn. INFJs need and want harmony in their homes and find constant
conflict, overt or covert, extremely destructive to their psyches. Their
friendship circle is likely to be small, deep, and long-standing.
| As parents, INFJs usually are fiercely devoted. A female INFJ, particularly, is linked to her children in a way different from the other types: with almost a psychic symbiosis. This deep bond can create an overdependency that can be unhealthy for both mother and child. At the same time, INFJs tend to be good friends with their children, while firm in discipline. They usually are concerned about the comfort of a home and most
especially the comfort, physical health, and emotional well-being
of both mates and children.
|
| Famous INFJs:
Nathan, prophet of Israel
Aristophanes
Chaucer
Goethe
Robert Burns, Scottish poet
U.S. Presidents: Martin Van Buren, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter
Nathaniel Hawthorne, author, poet
Fanny Crosby, (blind) hymnist
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Fred McMurray ("My Three Sons", various movies)
Shirley Temple Black, child actress, ambassador
Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, martyr
James Reston, newspaper reporter
Shirley McClain, actress ("Sweet Charity", ...)
Piers Anthony, author ("Xanth" series)
Michael Landon, actor ("Highway to Heaven," "Little House on the
Prairie")
Tom Selleck, actor ("Magnum, P. I.," "Mr. Baseball")
Oprah Winfrey, talk show host
John Katz, critic, author
Paul Stookey, folk singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)
Angela Lansbury, actress ("Murder, She Wrote")
U. S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL)
Richard Gere, actor ("Pretty Woman", "Sommersby")
Billy Crystal, actor, comedian
Carrie Fisher, actress ("Star Wars")
|
| A Brief Guide to the Personality Types
| The Source of Energy (E vs. I)
| Extraverts (E):
| Sociability, Interaction, External, Breadth, Extensive, Multiple
relationships, Energy expenditure, External events, Gregarious, Speak,
then think.
| Introverts (I):
| Territoriality, Concentration, Internal, Depth, Intensive, Limited
relationships, Energy conservation, Internal reactions, Reflective, Think,
then speak.
| The Information-Gathering Function (S vs. N)
| Sensors (S):
| Sequential, Present, Realistic, Perspiration, Actual, Down-to-earth, Fact,
Practicality, Specific.
| iNtuitives (N):
| Random, Future, Conceptual, Inspiration, Theoretical, Head-in-clouds,
Fantasy, Ingenuity, General.
| The Decision-making Function (T vs. F)
| Thinkers (T):
| Objective, Firm-minded, Laws, Firmness, Just, Clarity, Critique, Policy,
Detached.
| Feelers (F):
| Subjective, Fair-hearted, Circumstances, Persuasion, Humane, Harmony,
Appreciate, Social values, Involved.
| The Life-style Orientation (J vs. P)
| Judgers (J):
| Resolved, Decided, Fixed, Control, Closure, Planned, Structure, Definite,
Scheduled, Deadline.
| Perceivers (P):
| Pending, Wait and see, Flexible, Adapt, Openness, Open-ended, Flow, Tentative, Spontaneous, What deadline?
|
